Construction of Štvanická, the pedestrian footbridge connecting Prague districts Holešovice and Karlín, should begin tomorrow, January 11.
Until now, the footbridge has been called with an abbreviation from the names of two city districts, ie HolKa.
Designed by Marek Blanek and Petr Teje architects, the bridge pushes building technology to the limit; the use of freeze-resistant and fiber-reinforced ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) helped reduce the structural shell thickness.
The new bridge would relieve traffic on some of the existing bridges, which have been overburdened and are in need of repairs. They would also greatly reduce the commuting time to reach certain parts of the city.
The footbridge should replace the ferry, which now connects the bank of the Vltava River at Pražská tržnice and Rohanské nábřeží, which should stop running after the footbridge is completed.
The idea of building a footbridge in this area was a part of the Prague Land-Use Plan for a long time. In 1999 an architectural competition was held to define the appearance of the footbridge.
However, after the floods in 2002, the flood protection measures were reinforced and the design was no longer actual.
Štvanická spans 38 meters between Karlín and Štvanice and 149 meters between Štvanice and Holešovice. According to an earlier statement, the construction should take 14 months.
The expected cost of the project is 197 million CZK.
Author: Petr Tej for IPR Praha
